Does anyone know how to set up alerts from either the Dexcom G6 or Sugarmate to trigger an Amazon Echo to produce the alarm sound? Could I have his phone connected via Bluetooth (we also have an extra speaker that is bluetooth compatible, if that would work.) I have set Sugarmate up to call my phone for urgent lows but would like to have the Echo in my son’s room for an to alarm alert him for lows/highs while he is sleeping at night. I’m trying to take myself out of the equation to prepare him for college. We have the SonicBoom with the shaker but the sensitivity and finding a place to put it has been a challenge and has frustrated him to the point where he doesn’t want to use it. Hoping someone has found a solution for this. Thanks in Advance!
Hi, I was wondering if you found a solution to this issue? I gave exactly the same problem and a year before my T1 son goes to uni.? Thanks
Hello @sunnyfi welcome to the forum. This is a very old post I doubt you will get a reply. Are you having trouble or is your son. Does he have his cell phone paired with G6? The standard g6 alarm can wake the dead, on my cell phone.
Hi Joe, thanks for your reply. My son often doesn’t wake up to his phone beeping in the night, but I certainly do! I’ve seen many people asking on sugarmate whether it can trigger an Alexa alarm as this could be much louder. I really need to find a way of creating a louder alarm than his phone - 2 beeps every 15 mins or so isn’t enough. A continuous alarm would even be better. Any ideas would be great… thanks
A while back there were some discussions on how to get a very heavy sleeper to wake up, even to a regular alarm clock much less a glucose alert - if you do a search for “wake up” you should hit on some. I’ve heard of people who put one of those old fashioned wind up tabletop clocks in a metal pan so the metal against metal would wake them. You might try that with a cell phone so the sound of the metal wakes them although that could be annoying to roommates. Hopefully you find some things to try and hit on some that work!
One other thing - spoken as a person who went to college before there were even home meters much less CGMS: at the time all we had to go on until the early 80s were our body’s warning signals (and friends pointing things out on occasion). Sometimes I have a concern that with CGM technology to rely on, people don’t learn to read what their body is telling them. I’ve had Type1 for nearly 60 years and thankfully still have awareness of hypos even if it’s somewhat diminished - hopefully hypoglycemic unawareness won’t be an issue for your son for a long time. I hope he’s recognizing his set of signs along with using his CGM - in my case if I feel them I wake up and can’t get back to sleep until I’ve treated.
Having said that - and not to point fingers at you specifically as I imagine it’s a parenting thing (I don’t have kids): I sometimes wonder if knowing parents are following their readings, may cause kids to be less sensitive to the alerts they get. Again, I grew up without, and if I felt low at night I woke up on my own (thank goodness) and yelled for my parents if I wasn’t able to get the glass of juice on my nightstand. But early on I got used to trusting my own body. When my family traveled and I stayed in our single family home home by myself (no neighbors in a neighboring apartment to hear of I was in distress) I did set my alarm clock to go off every two hours so I could check myself, as an added measure since I was truly on my own.
My point is that if you slowly cut the cord maybe he will learn to wake on his own to the alerts and/or to his own body. Obviously there can be some danger in that. Some people may truly need a follower because for whatever reason they can’t manage on their own. My experience may not be the case for everyone and I certainly don’t want anyone to come to harm. But having said that, there may not always be someone around to help. And a kid may get to a point where they don’t want their parents/significant other /spouse following them so they need to be equipped to do what they can on their own. I’m married and my husband doesn’t follow me because it’s not needed.
Your doctor or DNE might suggest some safe ways to do this. I’m no expert but I’m thinking of a sort of systematic desensitization approach (echos of college psych class): with the agreement that you’re going to leave him on his own, he could set his low alert at a higher level where he’s still safe and you don’t need to respond (and don’t). Hopefully the idea that he’s on his own will make him more sensitive to the alerts with practice. As he wakes at the higher level, dial the number down a bit until he responds there as well. Of course you could step in when necessary but the idea is to train him to rely less on you and wake up on his own. Having resources is great but it’s important to be able to handle things in your own as best you can.
Having said that, if his diabetes is such that he really does need to rely on “backup” please know I understand.
Wishing you and him all the best.